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14 March 2018

Irwin Law has just published a book dealing
with the 19th century Caroline Incident and its influence on the ius ad bellum

ABOUT

In the middle of night on 29 December 1837,
Canadian militia commanded by a Royal Navy officer crossed the Niagara River to
the United States and sank the Caroline, a steamboat being used by
insurgents tied to the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada. That incident, and the
diplomatic understanding that settled it, have become shorthand in
international law for the “inherent right to self-defence” exercised by states
in far-off places and in different sorts of war. The Caroline is
remembered today when drones kill terrorists and state leaders contemplate
responses to threatening adversaries through military action.

But it is remembered by chance and not
design, and often imperfectly.

This book tells the story of the Caroline affair
and the colourful characters who populated it. Along the way, it highlights how
the Caroline and claims of self-defence have been used — and
misused — in response to modern challenges in international relations. It is
the history of how a forgotten conflict on an unruly frontier has redefined the
right to war.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Preface

Chapter 1: Introduction

Part I: The Destruction of the Caroline
Chapter 2: The Insurgency
Chapter 3: The Invasion
Chapter 4: The Canadian Militia
Chapter 5: The Caroline
Chapter 6: The Raid
Chapter 7: Aftermath

Part III: The Merits of the Caroline
Chapter 15: The Law of the Day
Chapter 16: The Idea of War
Chapter 17: Imperfect Wars
Chapter 18: Self-Preservation at Copenhagen
Chapter 19: Neutrality and Its Limits
Chapter 20: Self-Defence and the First Seminole War, 1817–1818
Chapter 21: The Merits of the Case